My introduction to practicing involved piano lessons from a teacher mother knew. When I didn't respond well, she sent me to another woman. After two years I wasn't any closer to Carnegie Hall, so Mom gave up. 

😏

   I think if the teacher had been a sports hero, I might have been inspired at least to master the scales. Later on came trumpet practice, band practice and baseball practice, all with modest results. 
 

   Our Pursuit of His Presence   

   A colt without practice at bearing riders, obediently bore our Lord along a path into Jerusalem. It is said, if Christ dwells in us, we also bear the Lord of glory.

   We practice faith as doctors practice medicine. A pastor might practice a sermon in front of a mirror. But, mostly, practice and living it are one and the same. 

   Starting with the basics, we grow, and - to borrow his words - seek his face,  a personal relationship. Old habits are stubborn. And the devil is persistent.

   Our response is not to send a plague of locusts or part the sea or heal the blind or slay Goliath. We don't have to go to Jerusalem, like Muslims are expected to visit Mecca.

   Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship

the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when true worshipers

will worship the Father in spirit and truth,

for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

John 4:21, 23-24

   I asked our pastor what Paul meant by praying in the spirit. Set aside other thoughts and surroundings and focus entirely on God, he answered.